Trail cam/cctv for capturing urban wildlife

[Longhorn_Fan68 33948]

I live in South Austin and since I've been here I've seen skunks, coyotes, foxes, armadillos, snakes, lizards, possums, raccoons, all types of birds including birds of prey.

I'd love to set up a camera in the back yard to capture these creatures and have it record automatically (preferably by motion), but I'd prefer it save to an external device that i can easily pull the video from. 

I've looked at a lot of trail cams and traditional home security systems and kinda got tired head. Since this is the hobby board I'd like to use some extra components i have (old chrome os mini computer, raspberry pi, old laptop, external drives, etc), if possible. But am willing to purchase stuff too. 

Is it just as simple as getting a trail came a few sd cards and just swapping them out every so often? Or is there something a little more sophisticated that might deliver better results? Thanks in advance

[fattyflattie 4639]

40 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I live in South Austin and since I've been here I've seen skunks, coyotes, foxes, armadillos, snakes, lizards, possums, raccoons, all types of birds including birds of prey.

I'd love to set up a camera in the back yard to capture these creatures and have it record automatically (preferably by motion), but I'd prefer it save to an external device that i can easily pull the video from. 

I've looked at a lot of trail cams and traditional home security systems and kinda got tired head. Since this is the hobby board I'd like to use some extra components i have (old chrome os mini computer, raspberry pi, old laptop, external drives, etc), if possible. But am willing to purchase stuff too. 

Is it just as simple as getting a trail came a few sd cards and just swapping them out every so often? Or is there something a little more sophisticated that might deliver better results? Thanks in advance

Cellular trail cams email you pics and vids, largely doing away with the SD cards. Since it’s your yard, SD would be cheaper and just as easy. There are some very high quality trail cams out there, but the more reviews you read, the more YouTube vids you watch, the more confusing it gets.   We’ve had good luck with Spartan. But for the price, they ought to work well 

Cant help with the other tech stuff, not at all tech savvy. 

[royiv 9417]

17 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I live in South Austin and since I've been here I've seen skunks, coyotes, foxes, armadillos, snakes, lizards, possums, raccoons, all types of birds including birds of prey.

I'd love to set up a camera in the back yard to capture these creatures and have it record automatically (preferably by motion), but I'd prefer it save to an external device that i can easily pull the video from. 

I've looked at a lot of trail cams and traditional home security systems and kinda got tired head. Since this is the hobby board I'd like to use some extra components i have (old chrome os mini computer, raspberry pi, old laptop, external drives, etc), if possible. But am willing to purchase stuff too. 

Is it just as simple as getting a trail came a few sd cards and just swapping them out every so often? Or is there something a little more sophisticated that might deliver better results? Thanks in advance

Does your wifi reach to where you want to place the camera? I have a Ring camera that's powered by solar and is hooked up to my wifi network. I get phone alerts from the backyard (and other locations, but not relevant for this discussion) and I get to keep tabs on the possums and raccoons that live around us. When I first got it, I got a funny video of one of the possums boxing the camera. I guess he was pissed that he was being surveilled.

[Longhorn_Fan68 33948]

14 minutes ago, royiv said:

Does your wifi reach to where you want to place the camera? I have a Ring camera that's powered by solar and is hooked up to my wifi network. I get phone alerts from the backyard (and other locations, but not relevant for this discussion) and I get to keep tabs on the possums and raccoons that live around us. When I first got it, I got a funny video of one of the possums boxing the camera. I guess he was pissed that he was being surveilled.

yeah, this sorta points to my dilemma. The camera will be about 15 feet from the wifi router, so it should have a strong connection. but this also implies I need to connect to a computer, laptop, phone, etc. it might be easier to just have it dump on an sd card and change it out when it get close to full.

[UT_OB1 2227]

I use Blink cameras. They are cheap and easy to set up. ~$8 a month gets you unlimited cloud storage. You can set for motion detect. About my only complaint is that shadows in the day trigger it a lot. But that may be all cameras

 

[UT_OB1 2227]

The blink cameras are WiFi, by the way. 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4980]

I have a spypoint camera. $15 a month for unlimited pictures, and it sends them to an app on your phone. Batteries can last a few months if it is not set somewhere where it is constantly going off and there is good cellular reception. This is with it set to send pictures twice a day. If you set it to send pictures immediately it will run them down much more quickly. It also has a micro SD card that can be swapped out. The pictures saved to the card have a higher resolution than the ones it sends to your phone.

[UT_OB1 2227]

Momma raccoon teaching baby raccoons to catch bugs last night. 
 

My kids: “Can we get one for a pet?!?!”

 

[UT_OB1 2227]

Got 2 foxes running around and a coyote. Coyote and i surprised each other when i went around back of the house to pee and he was just coming out of woods. 
 

 

[UT_OB1 2227]

Oh and I’ve had this guy wandering around too. Seen him a couple times before but it’s been months. Can’t tell if he still belongs to anyone or not. 
 

 

[horn4life 3819]

So SD card is higher quality image at a lesser price is the way to go if you have access to camera, and do not need time sensitivity?  I assume time stamps are on all images?  Wifi/ Cellular is mainly for timeliness?

I am also assuming that the card units are higher res?  Or is that a misconception?

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4980]

Cellular units are the same resolution, give or take. They save the higher resolution images to the card and send a lower resolution image to your phone. So you can pull the card to get the better pictures. All pictures should have time stamps and stuff. 

[Updawg 2326]

I use blink as well

[UT_OB1 2227]

These guys were about 30 seconds away from being a Nat Geo doc

 

runnnn!

 

Edited October 24 by UT_OB1